Stax Academy celebrates 10 years with festival

Laquita Mosby (right) and Tamika Bobo sing along to gospel songs performed by the New Friendship Missionary Baptist Church Choir during the Stax to the Max street festival on Saturday.

Standing just tall enough to reach the microphone at its lowest position, 16-year-old Stax Music Academy student Tangela Mathis stood in the school's amphitheater ready to perform songs more than twice as old as she is.

Backed by other Stax Academy students playing bass, guitar, drums and keyboard, Mathis belted out versions of Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious" and Michael Jackson's "Rock With You," among other tunes, with the same confidence and style of their original performers.

Although the Stax Museum of American Soul was host to notable performers like Isaac Hayes-collaborator David Porter and comedian Sinbad at Saturday's Stax to the Max street festival, the true spotlight was on the academy's students.

Hundreds of attendees, some from as far as Birmingham, Ala., filled East McLemore between Neptune Street and College Street for a celebration of the school's 10th anniversary on Saturday.

From noon until 10 p.m., attendees enjoyed performances from local musicians including the City Champs, the LeMoyne-Owen College choir, the Rhodes College Jazz Band and the "Soul Man" himself, David Porter.

Admission to the Stax Museum was free during the festival.

Kirk Whalum, Grammy Award-winning saxophonist and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, which oversees operations of the Stax Academy and Museum, said the festival was a boon to a neighborhood that sometimes seems forgotten -- even though it produced musicians including Aretha Franklin and Booker T. Jones.

Attendees of the festival, he said, got the chance to see that Soulsville, U.S.A., still lives up to its namesake.

"The ultimate thing is, when they see these kids perform, they can touch and actually taste the future ...of these kids from this sort of forgotten neighborhood," he said.

That future included a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, and a recording deal with Sony Entertainment for one Stax Academy alum, 20-year-old Ashton Riker.

Riker credited Stax Academy for his success.

"The intense schedule, the workload -- it kind of helps you learn to become a professional early. It just provides a lot of experience," he said.

For Mathis, the effects have been similar.

"The Stax Academy really helped me to push and stretch my voice," she said. "I used to limit myself to certain genres because I thought that it was something that wasn't suitable for my voice ... but I just figured if you have a gift, you should stretch it as many miles as it can go. (The Stax Academy) has really helped me to expand my talent."